MADURAI
The Madras High Court Bench here has dismissed a habeas corpus petition filed by the wife of a murder case accused by claiming that the recent arrest of his 32-year-old husband in a 16-year-old murder case was not legal since he was a minor at the time of the alleged occurrence of the crime in 2001.
A Division Bench of Justices T.S. Sivagnanam and C.V. Karthikeyan held that the arrest of the petitioner’s husband, M. Rajendran, by Kallakudi police in Tiruchi district and remand in judicial custody at Tiruchi Central Prison could not be termed illegal since he had been absconding all these years.
Holding that the habeas corpus petition moved by R. Pothumponnu was not maintainable, the judges said: “We find that the detention of the detenu in the Central Prison, Tiruchi, is not an illegal detention. On the other hand, it is a case of remand in judicial custody. Therefore, it is for the accused to move the regular court for bail.
“The question as to whether the detenu was a minor at the time of commission of the alleged offence is also a defence that could be raised before the competent court and to be decided by the competent court and not in this HCP.”
The judges pointed out that petitioner’s husband was one of the accused in the case booked by Kallakudi police under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with deadly weapons), 324 (causing hurt with dangerous weapons), 307 (attempt to murder), 332 (causing hurt to public servant) and 302 of the Indian Penal Code, besides Section 9(1)(B) of the Explosive Substances Act of 1908.
However, since he had been absconding for long, the trial in the case was split up before a Fast Track Court in Tiruchi and a judgement was delivered with respect to the other accused alone. The police managed to nab him only now in order to try him separately and hence the present petition.
